Abstract
Nigeria
has a vibrant music industry which churns out tons of music albums on annual
basis. However, most of these songs are thematically threadbare, and their
lyrics are contradictory to Nigeria’s national ethos. There seems to be a
dearth of critical discourses on the texture and tempo of musical releases in
Nigeria. This study expands epistemic frontiers as it investigates a number of
contemporary Nigerian songs rendered in the English language within the
framework of Leavisism. The aim is to establish how poor musical art can be
inimical to national purpose and development. The study identifies a hiatus – a
missing link in the music value chain in the country – the absence of a
proactive and robust censor’s board or agency. The role of the digital media in
giving global visibility to both sound and poor music is unprecedented, hence
the need to censor the art consumed by Nigerian citizens – especially young
Nigerians who are easily receptive of contemporary songs. A serious nation
takes what is consumed by its citizens seriously. The practice of releasing
poorly scripted and edited songs to the public with little or no censorship has
been observed as unhealthy by this paper. The methodology of the paper is
essentially qualitative as a number of musical releases are analysed and
examined within the Leveavisist framework. The findings of the study are
noteworthy: one, most of the lyrics of the songs do not promote cultural
excellence, two, there is no proactive censor’s board to prevent the
infiltration of the market with culturally unhealthy songs. A responsive
censor’s board is the hiatus – the missing – through which a musical art that
promotes national development can be realised.
Keywords: Censor’s board, Contemporary, Leavisism, Music
industry, Nigeria and National ethos.
DOI: 10.36349/alqajolls.2026.v01i02.023
author/Dr. Chimeziri C. Ogbedeto, Dr. Ugochukwu Ogechi Iwuji & Chiadikobi, Chinwe Mary-Rose
journal/AL-QALAM JLLS 1(2) | June 2026
